Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Alabama

Change Region

comments

Local vapor shop owners feel reprieve after FDA moves on e-cigarettes

FDA Electronic Cigare.jpg

aryl Cura demonstrates an e-cigarette at Vape store in Chicago, Wednesday, April 23, 2014. The federal government wants to ban sales of electronic cigarettes to minors and require approval for new products and health warning labels under regulations being proposed by the Food and Drug Administration. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

The federal agency proposed regulations Thursday, outlining for the first time, a legal framework for the increasingly popular devices used to inhale a nicotine-laced mixture.

Anticipating the new law, local shop owners worried the restrictions would go too far. But their decisions turned out to be more tempered than expected, some say.

Already in effect in many states, the agency proposed barred the sale of the products to people under the age of 18. In Alabama, state law restricts sales to those under the age of 19.

Makers of the products are now required to disclose to the FDA a listing of products and ingredients. Marketing of new products will be reviewed, and all health or reduced risk claims must be backed up by scientific evidence.

The agency also barred free sample, a requirement when put in practice could extend to shop owners whose store’s often double as lounge-like rooms where customers can test different vials of liquid nicotine.

“It’s really kind of in a gray area right now,” said Daniel Canceleno, owner of T.L.C. Vapes in Foley, adding the he was not certain if that part of the law would apply to his store. “At this point we’re just going to keep sampling until its clarified,” Canceleno said.

Canceleno said the regulations came across as “common sense,” adding that because he does not make the liquid in house, many of the new rules will not have much bearing on their operations.

“I’m sure there are going to be a lot more changes coming down,” he said.

FDA officials said many of the details will be teased out over a 75-day public comment period. When finalized, the new rules will establish oversight of the sale of the products, which at time originate out of the country.

How the rules will be applied depend on the context, said Stephanie Yao, a spokesperson for the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Yao said the agency “would appreciate comments on (any) nuances.”

Following a law passed in 2009, the FDA was expected to seize more control of the industry said to be worth billions. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the move was “an important moment for consumer protection.

Other products listed include pipe tobacco, water pipe tobacco known as hookahs, nicotine gels and dissolvable tobacco, alongside electronic cigarettes.

Meanwhile, vapor shops in Mobile and Baldwin counties continue to grow in number.

Angie Stokes, co-founder of Palm Beach Vapors, which has a new location on Airport Boulevard, said the regulations “came down a little more relaxed” than she expected. “I thought they would come down on online sales and also the mixing (in stores),” she said.

Stokes said they are planning to begin making new labels for their products to include the list of ingredients as the proposed rules require.

“It seems a little unclear at this point,” she said. “We will do whatever they want to be in compliance.”